Feychild

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“No, probably just me on a gryphon or something like that”
Kathlin responded to Sharon. Liaena glanced at her diffidently. “Eh, something like that”

The shorter girl gave Sharon a worried look, and then turned to Mei. “Hey. The indirect reason a demon is terrorising Stormwind is because a Scourge cult posing as a merc guild called the ‘White Hand’ are trying to kill –“ here she pointed at Sharon “—him. Do me a favour and keep a look out for assassins, would you?”

“Never mind, you’ll probably be safer with her than us” Kathlin said consolingly as she backed off towards the door. Liaena reached up to give the High Elf a quick kiss and then moved to join her. “...do NOT get in the line of fire. Your bodyguards have it covered”

With that, the pair turned to duck out of the door onto a small cramped square in the dwarven district. On the other side of the city from the Mage district as they were, the atmosphere almost appeared normal. Liaena tugged at Kathlin’s hand to guide her, and the two girls turned to flee down a side street.

“Ah….Li? This isn’t the way to the Gryphon post”
Kathlin gasped after a few minutes of ducking and weaving expertly between buildings. Liaena turned to check back behind them; in her free hand was a vial she was holding like a grenade. “Detour. We’re taking”

Coming out onto one of the canal bridges, Kathlin turned to take in the majestic façade of the Cathedral looming over the buildings ahead of them. “Detour….home?”

“Yes”

The other girl shook her head as she jogged along. “Seems...too good…to be true. I’ll go with it”

The square that they emerged onto was by contrast a hotbed of activity. The main work seemed to be the rapid import of civilians and city watch casualties into the monastery clinics, many sporting ugly burns or dark wounds – or simply missing body parts. This entire process was being watched over by multiple priests rushing about with clip boards, one of which Liaena made a beeline for now. “LIAM! A word!”

Priest Gray turned sharply with a harassed look on his face – one that melted into mingled relief and anger when he saw the pair. “Rune….what’s going on!? Reports say that a Demon has made a nest in your boyfriends house, half the mage district is on fire and the army is being called in! What in the eastern kingdoms did you DO!? …Light, I’m so glad you’re okay”

“Me too, dear” Kathlin responded as she returned the priest’s hug.

Liaena, who looked as if she was about to commence some pre-determined spiel, stalled noticeably as she stared at the pair. “….dear? Since when!?”

“Er, about six months ago?”
The taller priestess said amiably. From the expression on her companions face, it cut no ice at all. “….but Liam!? Really. Why?”

“EH-HEM!” Priest Gray said sharply, the young mans face now slightly purple from some combination of stress and now embarrassment as he glowered at Liaena. “Get to the POINT Rune, before I call the Paladins!”

“Oh, right. Yes.” Liaena said, before pointing at Kathlin. “The demon’s in love with her”

“….”

“….I don’t think that was the best thing to start with”
Kathlin commented as she took in Liam’s stupefied expression. Liaena merely smirked. “Just for his expression, it totally was.”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Er….” Kathlin began as she looked up at the High Elf. “….No, that’s alright Mister Dal’dieb. I think letting you do that would be a violation of my Hippocratic oath”

“Besides, it wouldn’t work.” Liaena sniffed from his other side. “Firstly, I doubt this shop sells anything strong enough that could overrule my potion. And secondly, we would somehow need to point it in your direction when it’s big enough to literally survey the entire city”

The girl peered up at Sharon, looking obviously disgruntled with his remark. “Also, how are you responsible for that thing running around? You can split blame between Sharon and….whoever blew up my satchel earlier”

“Was that a ‘yes’ to my blessing a weapon?” Kathlin enquired as she stepped towards the pike Serphia had been eying up – what it was doing in a potions and engineers store was up for debate, but irrespective of that there it was. She leaned over to gingerly pick up the weapon to hold it at completely the wrong angle before giving the room a self-conscious look.

“Well. I’ve never actually, er, done this before….so please, er, bear with me”

With that, the girl closed her eyes and cleared her throat, before beginning to sing in a soft melodic tone, in what appeared to be latin. While there were no extravagant movements or gestures it was evident that whatever she was doing had power in it, as a faint and slowly strengthening glow appeared around her and coalescing on the weapon blade.

“Once she’s done with that, I’ll take her and get us into demon-bait mode” Liaena remarked off-handedly. “The Gryphon master owes me a….”

The girl paused at this, as though trying to determine exactly what adjective she should use before settling on the most socially acceptable. “…favour”

“Although – where to? In terms of where you want to fight her, there’s a mountain range to the north of here that isn’t populated except from Knolls and other stuff like that” Liaena glanced at Serphia at this with a questioning look. “Other than that, the countryside is littered with villages so I don’t see where you’re going to go easily”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“What’s this about a Love Potion I keep hearing about!?”

“Just an accidental advantage, Captain” Liaena responded easily with only a moment’s hesitation.

The two apprentice priestess’s exchanged a glance, communicating the stares of ‘you suck’ and ‘bite me’ instantly and silently. It will be left to the reader to determine which girl was responsible for which.

“You see, that demon is infatuated with my friend here” Liaena pointed at Kathlin, who had by this point adopted a resigned expression as Serphia’s gaze bore down on her. “As it stands, it will make trying to locate her a high priority – which gives the option of luring it into a location of your choosing. For…your ultimate victory, no doubt”

“We should get her out of the city at least.” Kathlin finally spoke up at this point to nod at the Draenei. “Mei is right about that. She’s going to cause chaos until the paladins can get to her, and I don’t think they were ready to mobilise for such a…instantaneous invasion.”

The girl turned to look at Serphia. “The Cathedral won’t lend you any sanctified weapons, sorry. They only allow those they deem worthy to carry them….and I doubt you’ll make the cut, I’m afraid”

An ominous silence fell for a moment as the Captain eyes turned a shade further crimson, before the girl continued. “But, I can bless your weapon. It’s not anywhere near the same as a truly pure blade and it’ll eventually wear off….but it should make it more effective against undead and demons in the short term"

...

"I think.”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

While hardly cutting as imposing a figure as Mei, Liaena had also been quick to position herself between Sharon and Serphia. While her boyfriend’s words had mirrored her thoughts albeit with slightly less flowery language…. personally she would preferred to have shrunk Serphia before making such comments.

Opening her mouth to form words that would almost certainly have contained the items: “stupid” and “fat”, Liaena was saved from having to redirect Serphia’s ire by Mei making her presence felt. In no small order of magnitude. The girl stared at the Draenei as she talked on, and on. “….Yes. That would be good. Thanks.”

“What about the demon? How long do you think that giant potion is going to last?” Kathlin enquired from beside them. The second human had approached the group, now it was evident that the immediate threat of Death-By-Serphia-Smash had passed. Liaena gave her a quizzical look, before considering the question. “Er….a few hours? Maybe more. I don’t do half measures, unlike wherever the great Captain got hers from”

The girl received a passing glare from Serphia at this point, but the Night Elf was currently too busy quizzing Mei on the contents of her bank vault, to pay too much attention to insolent humans. “Okay, and the love potion?”

The danger signs had now materialised to start blaring in Liaena’s head, and so she instead affected an idle shrug. “Oh…no more than a few minutes. I made it to be a distraction…or a joke”

“Alright, so there’s not going to be a giant crazy love sick demon searching the city for me?” Kathlin enquired, her tone suggesting she was not particularly convinced by Liaena’s claims. “Because I did use Light magic in front of her. And something like that could probably sense where the Cathedral is”

“….”

“….Ah, it’ll be fine….” Liaena waved her concerns away. “….She’s got that girl that tried to kill us to play with!”

“She didn’t try to kill us”

“She was with and helped the people that were totally trying to kill us”

“You hang out—“ Kathlin snapped, before lowering her voice to jab a finger at Serphia. “—with that”

“…she’s better than a death knight!” Liaena protested, before also turning to size up Serphia. “maybe. If you squint”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

Er...so...I wrote a post...a week ago....and then put it on here - in theory. That part didn't seem to work...so luckily Autosave on Word is a thing and you can have it now. Er, sorry. I should pay more attention.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Are you guys married already?”

Liaena stalled in her tracks, before rotating to give the innocent looking Vashi a very, very cold look. The Night Elf seemed to be oblivious to the nasty edge the tone of the room had taken, as the girl cultivated her biting response. “N…”

“Not yet”
Kathlin remarked amenably, apparently utterly unaware of the glower that had immediately switched focus. It certainly seemed to satisfy Vashi though, who was looking unreasonably optimistic with her chances to be wedding planner considering how deeply unenthused the most relevant part of her audience looked. “Oooh then…would it be soon? In the next two weeks, maybe?”

“I need to get some better friends”
-CRASH-

Like Sharon, Liaena’s initial feeling from the extremely rude interruption was relief as the two Night Elves crashed through the ceiling. Not the most common reaction from the girl when dealing with Serphia, although it was not entirely unheard of. More commonly it was related to the Captain helpfully killing whatever gribbly had been threatening them, saving her from an awkward conversation was probably a first. Still, she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Yes, do that!”

The girl cried out, glancing at Malizia in acknowledgement at her words as she also stared at the big hole in the ceiling. Kathlin meanwhile, was making quiet noises of protest as she helped the Draenei to her feet…an unachievable feat for her if she was not also receiving the assistance of Vashi. “I don’t suppose you could not get up? Okay. You’re getting up, I get that but can we negotiate on sword swinging?”

“Where is the demon? Is she still Cathedral sized!?” Liaena demanded as she glanced at the two Night Elves that had just made a rapid entrance. The girl sized up Serphia, looking her up and down to take in all of her battle scrapes and scars. “I’d hope you managed to make her hurt for this, at least”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Li could definitely be dead again”

Kathlin nodded at Sharon’s words. Liaena raised an eyebrow languidly at her. “What’ll that be, the fourth time?”

“Third”

“Third….” Liaena paused for thought, before giving her peer a quizzical look. “What about the dragon?”

“There were an awful lot of deaths to record, and your paperwork got shifted to last because people figured you’d probably show up again”

“Hmm.” The girl frowned. “I’m starting to feel taken for granted here”

“we do need some samples from somewhere…” “Gimpsy, do you have any pets?”

“What?” the gnome gave her an odd look. “Of course not – all of my wares are fully tested for use on persons! None of this nonsense animal tests – highly unreliable”

“Well I could go and get something, if it’s just animal hairs you want” Kathlin offered. “I’m not sure I want to start yanking out chunks of someone elses hair though”

“No, I’ve already got mouse hairs, I used them on that stupid Death Knight”

Liaena pulled a small pouch out of a pocket with her words, to wave it at the others in demonstration. “I certainly don’t want all of us being mice though, Sods Law says we’ll be eaten by a cat, flushed down a drain or stepped on before we’ve gone twenty feet”

“Well, we could just have you and Mister Dal’dieb being them then. I don’t think I’m public enemy No. 1 yet” Kathlin said lightly, before pausing for thought. “Maybe No 6. No 7? We can see”

“I’m not convinced. The White Hand already know about you” Liaena said dubiously, clearly deeply unenthused by the prospect of giving up ownership of what had started as her grand plan, and put herself in the pocket – literally – of her peer. “…Sharon, what do you think?”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

Ehhh....got halfway through a post, however the other half wants my attention. And he's ill. Will try post tomorrow (Happy New Year also)

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Don’t worry. It’s closed” Kathlin said reassuringly as the Draenei’s eyes drooped into sleep. “You can tell by the way this shop isn’t on fire”

Waiting a few seconds for Mei to be fully unconscious, the girl placed a hand around the top of the draenei’s left shoulder, and the other on her collar bone, before shoving the shoulder back into its ball joint. There was an audible grinding noise in this, followed by a ‘clunk’.

“That is going to sting when she wakes up” Kathlin turned to Vashi who had been hovering beside her, to remark as such in a confidential tone. “She really shouldn’t be swinging a sword for at least a couple of days. She’s not going to listen to me. She might to you?”

“Hm…no thanks” Liaena said, after eying the jet pack speculatively for a moment. “The solid form solution though…does it work on gases?”

“Mostly. It makes it into a jelly!”

“Uhuh, and what’s the boiling point of the solution?”

“Wha…ah, an excellent point, an excellent point!” Gimpsy said gleefully as she continued to sort through bottles and tins. “The answer is, tests are still ongoing – but if you’d like to leave feedback, I could maybe give you a retroactive…”

The gnome turned around at this point, to eye up Liaena speculatively. “…two point five percent discount”

“ten percent” Liaena said, more to keep up appearances than anything else. The girl was keeping at least half an eye on Sharon at all times, meaning she was not paying full attention to the gnome. The High Elf looked completely miserable, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Given the circumstances, ‘I told you so’s’ about their acceptance of the Night Elf horde, could probably wait until later.

“Phssh….five percent”

“Fine”

Hopefully at any rate, Sherpa’s agents would be too preoccupied banking as much as they could out of this political and financial victory, to be too urgently attempting to murder the whole lot of them.

“Okay I’ll take two of the SFS…plus some of the transmogrify, a shrinking elixir and the standard alchemic suite”

“….”

“Oh, and for the transmogrify…do you have any subject samples?” Liaena enquired as an afterthought as the gnome was about to bustle off. “For a human, or a high elf would do”

“It’s not part of the standard purchase but I will…check” Gimpsy muttered, before heading into the back.

“We need to have you looking much less distinctive” Liaena said quietly as she headed back to the morose High Elf. “Guaranteeably the watch will be after you for questioning. At least.”
“That also goes for you, Li” Kathlin remarked offhandedly as she wound a bandage around Malizia’s shoulder. “I can see the newspapers tomorrow. Psychotic priestess blows up boyfriend’s manor. Assumed crazed gesture of affection”

“It has been a while since I made the front page” Liaena agreed in a thoughtful tone, before switching her attention back to Sharon. “Regardless, my point still stands”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Damn this hurts... I've not felt this much pain since an infernal actually took a hit at me once..."

“Sorry about that. Can I help?” Kathlin said apologetically from above them; as the girl crouched down to inspect the tangled mess of Draenei plus Night Elf. “Miss?” (to Vashi) “would you mind getting up please?”

"Oh, and hello there dearie! Welcome to my shop! ... "

Liaena was gazing around the holy sanctum Sharon had dumped them into with coveting eyes, before coming back to earth briefly to realise she was actually being addressed. “…Hi”

"I am telling you now, Dal'Dieb, from now on, I'm doubling your rent if you want to keep this emergency, and I emphasize, EMERGENCY teleportation circle!"

“No no, this was an emergency!” Liaena interjected. Catching Gimpsy’s attention, the girl gestured to the empty space where there should have been a bag at her side. “I found myself without any potions, alchemic powders or explosives! And there was only one place I trusted to have the finest quality to restock all of them. You can help me, can’t you?”

Liaena clasped her hands together as she gave the gnome her very best puppy-dog-eyes and cutesie smile, before pointing at Sharon as an afterthought. “It’ll go on his bill”

“Hm. You have definitely dislocated a shoulder there…” Kathlin murmured as she prodded Mei’s shoulder lightly, feeling under her shoulder pad. “….with some torn ligaments. I can fix it, but I need to get the bone back into place. Which will hurt. Li?”

“Yes, I’ll have two packets of the rotwood powder –“ Liaena was animatedly following Gimpsy around, rattling off alchemic buzzwords with her. Now however, she appeared with a flash next to the small group with Mei on the floor. “—what?”

“Could you ask for a numbing potion please”
Kathlin said blandly, to which Liaena frowned back at her. “Why? Just pop it back into place”
“I could….” The girl sighed. “…or I could take advantage of the fact we are literally in a laboratory. Numbing potion please”
“Okay, but you’re a mollycoddler”

-Zoom-

Giving the empty space where her companion had moments ago stood a long-suffering look, Kathlin turned back to look at Mei. “This won’t take a moment….just, don’t move for now"